SpeedStar wrote:
But somebody is gonna kick me for asking this, what are monitors? Are they high quality speakers, used to listen to and mix down your final product? If that is the case, couldn't I use a pair of high end headphones?
It's actually a
very good question. Monitors are high quality speakers, but are designed with completely different objective from something you would listen to music for pleasure with. While your typical hi-fi speaker is designed to flatter the sound and make it sound as good as possible, monitors are very accurate and revealing - they show up any problems in the mix, and do not flatter the sound in any way. By audiophile standards monitor speakers would probably be regarded as "flat" and "lifeless". Monitor speakers are also designed to be "portable" - meaning that if you get a mix sounding good on a pair of monitors, it will sound very good on almost any system.
Headphones are great for tracking (the recording/laying down tracks part of recording), but are worse than useless when it comes to mixing, as they give a completely skewed representation of the mix - especially the stereo soundstage.
Now since I've demonstrated my sub-par recording knowledge, does anyone know of any resource I could use to study these things. Or is it acquired through years of recording in small musty rooms?
Doing it is the best training, but there are lots of books on the subject. You'll also find that there are quite a few studios and even colleges doing training courses, both full- and part-time.
